Using an extension cord with this device may cause death.

My wife and I have spent that last couple weeks settling into a new house here in south-west Ottawa. We bought a new toaster to match the darker kitchen, and the toaster came with a bold red warning label: Using and extension cord with this device may cause death. That's a pretty blunt and extreme warning, no? Almost to the point of being a dare.

It got me thinking about how to raise error and warning messages in software that will grab attention. Joel Spolsky migh suggest putting a picuture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the window. I'm guilty of shutting down warning windows without reading them and then trying to figure out what went wrong through logic and deduction (which usually fails) :-). It then occurred to me the ultimate way to grab attention in a warning: "Failure to read this warning and take corrective action may cause impotence".

Now, where did we pack those extension cords...

- Don